Salter statues campaign
The Salter Statues Campaign has raised £35,000
The Salter Statues Campaign has now broken the £35,000 barrier in a fundraising campaign aimed at raising £50,000. In November 2011 the bronze statue of Alfred Salter was stolen from its location just east of Tower Bridge in London. A campaign was immediately started to raise £50,000 to replace it.
A new art work, created by artist Diane Gorvin, will celebrate the enormous personal contributions made by Alfred and Ada Salter in the early part of the twentieth century to alleviate poverty and deprivation in Bermondsey. The proposed artwork replaces the stolen statue of Alfred Salter and adds a new statue of Ada. It will re-install the statue of their daughter Joyce, who died of scarlet fever, with cat, and include security features so that the statue is never stolen again.
The new statue of Ada Salter, when completed and in place, will make it one of only fifteen public (open-air) statues of women in London (three are of monarchs).
It will be the only public statue of an elected female politician in London and the only public statue of a Quaker woman. A private (indoor) statue of Margaret Thatcher is in the Guildhall.
Graham Taylor, of Westminister Meeting, is involved in the campaign. He said: ‘We are delighted that Judi Dench has donated £1,000 to the campaign. We also received a contribution of £500 from the Quaker Socialist Society. It is great to have got to £35,000. Quakers have contributed about £2,000 so far.
‘Donations can be made through the campaign website at www.salterstatues.co.uk.’
(See ‘A Quaker of the people’).
